The 1981 season

Tropical Storm Warren (1981)

Tropical Storm Warren peaked at 45 kt in the Western Pacific between August 14, 1981 and August 21, 1981, with a lowest pressure of 992 mb, and made landfall.

Radar

Reflectivity now over Tropical Storm Warren. Open it to see storms, cones and warnings on the map.

Open the live radar with storms, cones and warnings

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

The storm

Basin
Western Pacific
Dates
August 14, 1981 to August 21, 1981
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
992 mb (29.29 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.2
Identifier
WP171981

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 14, 06:0015.5N 118.5EDisturbance
Aug 14, 12:0015.8N 118.0ETropical storm
Aug 14, 18:0016.0N 117.4ETropical storm
Aug 15, 00:0016.3N 116.7ETropical storm
Aug 15, 06:0016.4N 116.2ETropical storm
Aug 15, 12:0016.3N 115.7ETropical storm
Aug 15, 18:0016.2N 115.3ETropical storm
Aug 16, 00:0016.4N 114.7E1000 mbMixed
Aug 16, 06:0016.6N 114.6E996 mbMixed
Aug 16, 12:0016.9N 114.3E996 mbMixed
Aug 16, 18:0017.4N 113.7E998 mbMixed
Aug 17, 00:0017.9N 112.8E25 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 17, 06:0017.9N 112.2E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 17, 12:0018.1N 111.7E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 17, 18:0018.2N 111.4E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 00:0018.2N 111.1E30 kt998 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 06:0018.3N 110.8E35 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 12:0018.4N 110.4E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 18, 18:0018.5N 110.2E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 19, 00:0018.9N 109.6E35 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 19, 06:0019.2N 108.9E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 19, 12:0019.6N 108.3E40 kt994 mbTropical storm
Aug 19, 18:0019.9N 107.6E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 00:0020.2N 106.9E45 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 06:0020.8N 106.0E30 kt992 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 12:0021.5N 105.1E20 kt996 mbTropical storm
Aug 20, 18:0022.0N 104.0E998 mbTropical storm
Aug 21, 00:0022.0N 103.5E1000 mbExtratropical
Aug 21, 06:0022.0N 103.0E1000 mbExtratropical
Aug 21, 12:0023.0N 102.0E1000 mbExtratropical

Other Western Pacific storms of 1981

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.